Arrests of Suspected Fraudsters in Tenerife

On 1st December 1st 2010, the Spanish National Police arrested 25 people who were behind 10 fraudulent timeshare resale companies operating from Tenerife. Most of the arrested people are Germans and their victims, timeshare owners, share the same nationality.

It is reported that when contacting timeshare owners, the gang claimed to work in conjunction with notaries and even adopted the names of existing public notaries – but with subtle changes – using this as a hook to persuade their victims to part with money.

The Spanish National Police conducted searches at six different locations, finding over 100,000 personal details of European timeshare owners. These details will categorically not have been given to the gang by timeshare resorts, the exchange company or RDO; the only conclusion can be that the lists of owners must have been stolen.

RDO’s enforcement team has worked very closely with the Spanish National Police on this operation, providing key intelligence. This Spanish based team collects complaints from members of the public from around Europe and builds up cases that can then be presented to the appropriate enforcement bodies with the ultimate aim of having companies that defraud consumers closed down.

The fraudulent resale companies are:

• Fortress International

• Nowatis

• American General Inc Financial Services

• Tourlmus

• Royal Lepage

• Callaway & Brookfield Ltd

• European Ltd

• Real Estate Investment

• Wintermann & Son Investments

• Elascan Da

If you have lost money to one of the companies above, please contact RDO at enforcement@rdo.org. Our enforcement team will take this up with the Spanish police.